Mounting of carriages for machine tools



April 29, 1958 MOUNTING OF CARRIAGES Filed Dec. 14, 1954 INVEN F. C. G. BERTHIEZ FOR MACHINE TOOLS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Freder- A'T'roR NEY 1-012 v I ht Charles GilbcrT Ber-Thea April 29, 1958 MOUNTING OF CARRIAGES FOR MACHINE TOOLS Filed Dec. 14, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 u mvswrorz I Frederick Chav-les GiIbertBev-flfez ATTORNEY F. c. G. BERTHIEZ 2,832,651

United States Patent MOUNTING OF CARRIAGES FOR MACHINE TOOLS Frederick Charles Gilbert Berthiez, Lamorlaye, France,

assignor to Societe Anonyme des Anciens Etablissements Charles Berthiez, Paris, France Application December 14, 1954, Serial No. 475,243 Claims priority, application France July 24, 1954 Claims. (Cl. 3086) This invention relates to the mounting of carriages for machine-tools, such as, for example, vertical lathes, planing machines, planing-milling-machines, and radial drilling machines and more particularly to the mounting of carriages supported by and movable along horizontal slideways and provided with compensatory rollers resting resiliently on roller tracks parallel to the said slideways in order to relieve these slideways of the load as far as possible. Such an arrangementallows the slideways to be entirely or partly relieved of the weight of the carriage, as well as of the forces generated by tilting which is due to the fact that the centre of gravity of the carriage and of the members or tools carried by the same is located very much in front of the vertical plane of the slideways.

In most of the known devices the load per unit area of the rollers on their roller track is too high. In order to overcome this disadvantage reinforcing the roller tracks with a stressed plate or a flat surface on which cylindrically shaped rollers roll has been tried.

Now it is very difficult to control the rollers in such a manner that their axes remain sufliciently parallel to the surface of the roller track. As a result pressures per unit area or local forces which are too high are still set up. Moreover, dust or metal particles may be deposited and rest on the plane roller tracks.

The invention relates to a device which uses a particular form of roller track and of roller, as well as to a particular mounting of the said roller, which does not offer the aforesaid disadvantages.

According to the invention, the roller which has a circumferential groove of a circular arc section is freely movable axially, and rolls on a bar, rod or the like of complementary section.

Owing to this arrangement, it is certain that the roller always bears on the bar over the entire contour of the section of the groove.

Preferably the roller bar is cylindrical and rests on the rail member supporting the carriage on two faces forming a dihedral angle with one another. According to another feature of the invention, the said roller bar is simply placed into the said dihedral angle, and retained longitudinally by a fixed abutment arranged at each end.

In order that the invention may be better understood a particular embodiment thereof will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows diagrammaticaly in transverse section a carriage movable on a horizontal rail and provided with a compensator device with rollers according to the invention.

Figure 2 shows on a larger scale details of the mounting of the roller according to Figure l, and

Figure 3 is a view of the profile of the device represented in Figure 2, as viewed in the direction of the arrow 1.

As will be seen in Figure 1, 1 represents a horizontal rail for example the rail of a planing machine having two vertical pillars between which the rail 1 spans. A car- 2,832,651 Patented Apr. 29, 1958 riage 2 designed to carry the tools (not shown) can slide on this rail along the slideway 3.

On the upper rear portion of the rail 1 a cylindrical bar 4 is arranged parallel to the slideway 3. On this cylindrical bar 4 rolls a roller 5 which is resiliently mounted in a box 6 fixed firmly on the carriage 2 by a bracket 7 maintained on the upper face of the carriage, for example, by means of screws 8.

Referring now to Figures 2 and 3 details of the mounting of the roller and its roller track are here shown on a larger scale. In these figures the cylindrical bar4 is again shown and it will be seen that it rests on a plane horizontal face 11 of the rail 1, and that it bears, moreover, against another, vertical plane face 12 under the action of the roller 5 which bears resiliently against the bar 4 as is explained below.

The bar 4 is accordingly lodged in the dihedral angle formed by the two plane faces 11 and 12 of the rail. It is simply put into this angle which it cannot leave since it is forced therein by the roller and it is retained, as a safety measure, in the longitudinal direction by any convenient device such as an abutment 25 integral with the rail at each of the ends of the bar 4.

The box 6 in which the roller is mounted has a cylindrical bore 14 in which a piston 15 can slide. A stud 16 fitted transversely in the piston 15 supports the roller 5 through a needle bearing 17 in such a manner as to allow the roller 5 to undergo, if necessary, slight axial displacements along the stud 16.

.The upper portion of the piston 15 is provided with a centering boss 18 on which is mounted a pile of strong resilient washers 21 of the Belleville type. This pile of washers bears, on the one hand, on the upper face of the piston 15 and, on the other hand, on the inner face of a very strong cover 19 through an intermediate rigid regulating washer 22. In this embodiment the cover 19 is fixed to the box 6 by meansof screws 23.

The functioning of the device is clear. The Belleville washers 21 force the roller 5 strongly against its roller track constituted by the cylindrical bar 4.

It will be noted that considerable play has been provided between faces of the roller 5 and transverse to its axis the walls 10 of the recess of the piston in which the roller is mounted in such a manner that the roller 5 can undergo slight axial displacement on its axle 16 in order always to bear efiiciently on the cylindrical bar 4.

It will be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiment described and illustrated by way of example. It is capable of numerous modifications without departing from the scope of the invention. The number of rollers can be determined according to requirements.

I claim:

1. In a machine the combination with a support providing a horizontal slideway surface, and a member supported by said support for sliding movement of said member along said slideway surface, of an elongated element supported by said support and extending along said slideway surface parallel to the direction of movement of said member along said slideway surface, and a roller supported by said member for rotation on the axis of the roller in rolling engagement with and along said elongated element, said elongated element having a cross-section transverse to said extent of said element of covex curvilinear outline providing an exterior surface of said element disposed toward said roller, said roller having a grooved exterior peripheral surface extending about said axis of said roller, the contour of said groove surface providing for engagement of said groove surface with said exterior surface of said element at a plurality of points on said curvilinear outline, said roller being supported by said member for movement of said roller relative to said member parallel to the axis of said roller to insure engagement of said groove surface of said roller with said exterior surface of said elementat said points on said curvilinear surface of said element.

2. In a machine the combination as defined in claim 1 in which said elongated element has a cross-section of circular outline, the contour of the surface of said groove being of substantially the same circular outline as said cross-section of said elongated element.

3. In a machine the combination as defined in claim 1 in which said elongated element has a cross-section ofcircular outline,.said support providing planar faces disposed in angular relation to each other and extending lengthwise of said elongated element in bearing engagement with said exterior surface of said element to receive the pressure of said roller on said elongated element.

4. In a machine the combination as defined in claim 3 which comprises abutments carried by said support and engaging the ends of said elongated element to prevent endwise movement of said element relative to said support.

5. In a machine the combination as defined in claim 1 which comprises means for resiliently supporting said roller on said member to provide for yielding movement of said roller relative to said member transverse to said axis of the roller while providing for said movement of said roller parallel to said axis.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,381,188 Gury June 14, 1921 3,872,718 Flanigan Aug. 23, 1932 2,083,682 Balsiger et a1 June 15, 1937 2,540,586 Lauterbur et a1. Feb. 6, 1951 

